Holger Werfel SCHEUERMANN1877–1960

Who’s Who in Orthopedics

hagen, and he was over 80 when the University in 1957 elected him Honorary Doctor of Medi- cine in recognition of his work. It was touching to witness his happiness on receiving this honor, although it was given him so late.

Scheuermann had a gentle and quiet personal- ity, and his mind was engaged in practical and scientific problems. He was always to be seen at scientific meetings, not only of the Radiological Society but also of the Danish Orthopedic and Surgical Associations. He often traveled in other countries on his scientific bent; he told me once how envious he was when visiting Schmorl because of Schmorl’s immense patho-anatomical material and facilities for investigation.

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Holger Werfel SCHEUERMANN

1877–1960

Holger Werfel Scheuermann died on March 3, 1960, in Copenhagen. Scheuermann’s name is well known to the orthopedic world. He was the first to describe juvenile kyphosis, which in many countries is now known as Scheuermann’s disease.

Scheuermann was the son of a practitioner from Hørsholm, near Copenhagen. He was born on February 12, 1877, and graduated in 1902. He was trained both as an orthopedic surgeon and as a radiologist. From 1916 to 1919, he was assistant surgeon to the Society and Home for Crippled in Denmark. From 1935, he was chief radiologist to the municipal hospital, Sundby, Copenhagen. He retired in 1947.

Scheuermann described juvenile kyphosis in 1920–1921, when radiology was in its youth. His concept of the pathology and disturbances in the ossification of the end plates of the vertebrae is not unanimously accepted, but his description of the disease can be said to be classical and has not been improved upon by later authors.

Internationally, Scheuermann was probably the most well-known Danish radiologist. Apart from his work on juvenile kyphosis, his studies from 1932 on the normal and pathological sella turcica are internationally known. In 1937, he also described a radiographic technique for exposing optic foramen, which also gives him credit.

Although his work on juvenile kyphosis was original, unaccountably it was not accepted for the doctorate degree of the University of Copen-

Robert SCHNEIDER

1912–1990

Robert Schneider was born in Biel in 1912,

studied medicine in Bern and spent one semester

in Paris. In 1937, he began to specialize in general

surgery and in 1947 became a senior resident

under Professor Lenggenhager. Despite academic

leanings, he took the post of surgeon-in-chief in

a community hospital in Grosshöchstetten, a rural

village near Bern. Shortly after arriving there, I

met him and we developed a fraternal relation-

ship, which lasted for 38 years. After meeting four

of his surgical friends, I organized for them a

course on “Stable Internal Fixation,” in October

1956 at the Balgrist Hospital in Zürich. A year

later, we decided to found an “Association for the